The Hindu Business Line : `Gov' to be less smart and more caring now

THE Congress Government's eagerness to shed the `hyped' IT-savvy image of its Telugu Desam predecessor was apparent today with a change of name for SmartGov, one of the pet projects of the former Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu.

The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said SmartGov (Smart Governance) should be CARING Gov. He hastened to add that "It does not mean that we are less electronic savvy or against communication networks, but our first and foremost priority is to be `caring' to people's problems".

And what does CARING stand for? It's a committed, accountable, responsive, inspiring, nationalist and genuine governance, the Government intends to provide, Dr Reddy said, while inaugurating a `Minister's workshop on digital work automation', at the Dr MCR HRD Institute today.

SmartGov, one of the high-profile projects initiated by Mr Naidu to introduce widespread use of IT in the State Secretariat and various ministerial departments, is being implemented by the Tata Consultancy Services. SMART stood for simple, moral, accountable, responsive & transparent.

When reporters queried of the name change, Dr Reddy said, "Smart means over-intelligent... which we do not require for such initiatives, instead we need a caring attitude to ensure that people utilise the facilities and benefit."

Dr Reddy said the utility of the SmartGov features, especially the e-filing system, was only 30 per cent. This needs to be improved, for which he suggested that all Ministers be familiarised with the system.

The Chief Minister said, "The benefits of technology are growing and it is apparent we have to make maximum use of it. IT definitely helps improve services and has several advantages like aiding in quick decision-making, thereby benefiting people. "

Pointing to the positive impact of eSeva, Dr Reddy said the recently launched Rajiv Internet Kiosks would deliver citizen services in rural areas through the use of broadband network and will cover all the mandals in phase I and villages in phase-II.

The Vice-President, TCS, Mr Tanmoy Chakravarthy, who gave an overview of the SmartGov project, said that since its launch in November 2002, nearly 1.09 lakh files had been created electronically. Though a dip in usage was seen in the past few months, he hoped that the utility would improve, as the State was not just a pioneer in implementing it, but had invested resources and developed good practises.

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`Gov' to be less smart and more caring now